II. Background & Development of Salvage Law

The legal concept that a marine salvor is entitled to a reward for the
saving of imperiled marine property has been a recognized part of the
admiralty law for more than 3,000 years. The origins of the concept may
be traced from antiquity, as set forth in the Edicts of Rhodes, through
the laws of the Romans, as set forth in the Justinian Digest, to the
Medieval Laws of Oleron, the Code of the Hanseatic League down to the
founding of the Republic. The original concept, as it has come down
from the Romans, is that an individual who risks himself and his
property voluntarily to successfully rescue the property of another
from peril at sea and restore it to him has bestowed a benefit on the
owner and should be rewarded by the owner commensurate with the
magnitude of the benefit bestowed. The concept has a sound policy basis, descending as it does from an era
when the distinction between pirates and freebooters on the one hand
and honest seaman and salvors on the other was often only one of
motivation and expectation. While both were on the lookout for a
generous reward for their efforts, at least the latter hoped to come by
it honestly. The purpose was to encourage honesty by generously
rewarding those who restored property safely to the owner. Of course,
many modern marine insurance adjusters would argue that the distinction
between freebooter and salvor continues to be a vague one. There is
still, however, a sound policy basis for the concept today. The
interest of maritime safety and commerce as well as the marine
environment are better served by encouraging salvors to prevent losses
of vessels and cargo.

From the earliest days of this country, admiralty law has followed a
liberal approach to salvage. The United States rejected the English
maritime salvage system based as it was on the rights of the Crown and
the lord of the manor to wrecks and salvage, in favor of a system which
rewarded the individual for his efforts. It has always been the well
entrenched admiralty law of the United States that, as set forth by
Chief Justice Marshall in 1804, if property of an individual is exposed
to peril or hazard at sea and is saved by the voluntary exertion of any
persons whatsoever "[a] very ample reward will be bestowed in the
courts of justice."

It is the fundamental public policy of the United States to encourage
seamen to render prompt aid to vessels and property in peril at sea. As
discussed by Justice Clifford in The CLARITA , "[p]ublic policy
encourages the hearty and industrious mariner to engage in these
laborious and sometimes dangerous enterprises, and with a ieiw to
withdraw from him every temptation to dishonesty the law allows him, in
case he is successful, a liberal compensation."

It is the well-settled view of the U.S. admiralty courts that
"[c]ompensation as salvage is not viewed by the admiralty courts merely
as pay, on the principle of a quantum meruit, or as a remuneration pro
opere et labore , but as a reward given for perilous services,
voluntarily rendered."

The admiralty and maritime law of the United States has long recognized
that the law of salvage rewards the voluntary salvor for his successful
rescue of life or property imperiled at sea. The purpose of this policy
is to promote not only humanitarian rescue of life and property, but
maritime commerce as well.

Justice Story summarized it well, as he so often did:

In cases of salvage, the measure of reward has never been adjusted by a
mere estimate of the labor and services performed by the salvors.
These, to be sure, are very important ingredients; and are greatly
enhanced in value, when they have been accompanied by personal peril
and gallantry, by prompt and hardy enterprise, and by severe and
long-continued exposure to the inclemencies of the winds and waves. But
an enlarged policy, looking to the safety and interest of the
commercial world, decrees a liberal recompense, with a view to
stimulate ambition, by holding out what may be deemed an honorable
reward.

Indeed, the law of salvage is so well settled that it is sometimes said
to be the jus gentium or the international law of the sea. Under this
well settled doctrine of international law, salvage service is one
which is rendered voluntarily to a vessel which needs assistance and
which is designed to relieve her from some distress of danger either
present or to be reasonably apprehended. As set forth by the U.S.
Supreme Court:

Salvage is the compensation allowed to persons by whose voluntary
assistance of a ship at sea or her cargo or both have been saved in
whole or in part from impending sea peril, or in recovering such
property from actual peril or loss, as in cases of ship wreck,
derelict, or recapture.

It is necessary to draw the distinction between a
salvage service and a salvage award. In order to have a valid salvage
claim and be entitled to a liberal salvage award, a salvor must first
establish that the services rendered were, in fact, salvage services.
In order to establish a valid claim to have rendered salvage services,
a salvor must establish three elements: (1) marine peril; (2) services
voluntarily rendered; and (3) success, in whole or in part, with
contribution to such success by the service rendered by the salvor.

Of
these elements, the first, that of peril, is the most misunderstood and
the most frequent source of debate. Anyone who seeks to understand the
American law of salvage must first comprehend the American concept of
marine peril. The concept is a broad one, liberally applied.